Friday, July 29, 2016

Yesterday I was away on an ‘adventure’. For most people, it wouldn’t be what they considered 'exciting’ but for me it was a nice day.

Keith’s mom had her knee reconstructed this past April. Everything went well and she is doing better than ever on it. However, she still has one more procedure to have done on her other knee. That will be done in the upcoming months.

Yesterday was a 'girl’s day’ in which we traveled up the valley to New Minas, where the main hospital is located. It is about a two hour trip, so it is something that usually takes the entire day. The reason for the visit was not only to get the first knee checked out by the physician who performed the surgery, but also to x-ray and asses the second knee and get things rolling for the second operation. I am happy to say that everything went well and is on schedule. Keith’s mom is doing wonderful and since she has been doing her exercises and following all directions, he new knee is working better than every (and more important – pain free!) We spent the morning going through the system of stops required to get everything checked. By lunch time she not only had a clean bill of health on the first knee, but a tentative date for the second operation (September or October) to be done. All went well.

Since we finished by mid-day, we had the rest of the afternoon to enjoy. We had a beautiful lunch at a nice pub in New Minas. We both had steak sandwiches and fresh vegetables that were simply wonderful. We then stopped at a couple of our favorite stores to shop. There is a store here in Canada called “Winners” that I absolutely love. It is similar to “Marshalls” or “TJ Maxx” in the states (I think the chain is owned by the same company) and is stocked with odds and ends of name brand stuff for a fraction of the normal price. The thing is, it is different each time you go there. You never know what you will find. To me, it makes it fun and exciting, as well as slightly dangerous. There are times when I leave there with nothing and other times I break the bank, knowing that the products that I liked would not likely be there the next time I visited. I think it is part of the fun though.

One thing that the do always have there are beautiful BOXES.

Yes – you read that right – I said “boxes”. Those of you who read often know that I am not only an organization junkie, but also a box junkie. I tend to save and even sometimes hoard boxes. It is a near-daily battle for me to actually dispose of a well-constructed box, and I have to watch myself because if I am not careful, I allow them to take over my world. I am not sure when this affliction began, but I believe there must have been one time in my life when I didn’t have a proper box for something I was organizing and things began at that point.

The fact that places like Michael’s and Winners now carry full lines of beautiful, amazing boxes only exacerbates the issue. Every time I visit these stores I need to act with restraint. It is hard not to dive in and just get more.

I pretty much had things under control for a while, but moving has caused this beast within me to once again rear its ugly head. With all the new places to organize and sort, there was a natural need for new boxes to put stuff in. It couldn’t be helped.

So yesterday, I picked up a few more which I need to finish sorting my supplies that will fit in our new cabinets. I promise to show you all the new furniture in my studio, but I will show you the dining room pieces first. I am still working on getting my studio in order and frankly, I am getting a little tired of 'sorting’. Hopefully (I say HOPEFULLY) this will be the last hurrah as far as buying organizational pieces. I fear that the quantity of boxes exceeds the things that I want to store in them. I am not sure of that, but it truly may be the case.

Here is my 'haul’ from yesterday:

Aren’t they lovely? The tops of the floral ones are 'woven’ and textured. The colors are exactly perfect for my “white room” studio (I am going to be dying linen fabric for use on the daybed and the small bench in similar colors.) They were made for me I think.

The 'book’ boxes are similar to several that I have already, and will make a nice presentation altogether. If I don’t use them in my studio, they will fit will in the wall of shelved I have in my bedroom.I am sure they will come in handy.

Oh – and I wanted to show a full photo of the beautiful cabinet that we had made for us for our eating area:

It came out perfect for our open-concept dining area. We had a matching piece made for the opposite side of the room as well:

Both cabinets are made of solid wood and to our own specifications. We are really pleased with them.

I suppose they are kind of like “boxes” as well – just on a bigger scale. They will both serve us well to store our smaller boxes of things and supplies and dishes.

Little by little we are settling in. I can picture this room all decorated for autumn or Halloween or Christmas. Not “overly” decorated, but with some pretty, seasonal accents. For now, the walls look a little bare and there is a lot of empty floor space. We are still deciding on what we will be doing for the windows in that room. It is hard to believe that it has been a month since we arrived here. They look rather plain without anything on them, but with time we will get to deciding. It all takes time.

I can honestly admit that I am getting a bit tired of 'sorting’ stuff. It feels like I have been sorting and organizing for years. I may take a break from it so I can get some designing done, as for now everything at least has a place. I think I know where everything is, too. I have a thermal label maker on order and perhaps once it arrives, I will be a bit more motivated to finish. I know it may sound goofy, but I look forward to receiving that.

Once again I came home to lots of emails last night. I plan to catch up with that and actually get some drawing done today. It is cloudy and it looks as if it will rain. I don’t think that is a bad thing. We need some rain once in a while to keep things lush and green. It is a good day to stay in and create.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend this final weekend of July. Enjoy these hot summer days as much as you can. Before you know it, they will have passed and we will wonder where they went.